Update: I was unfortunately not aware of Shamus Young's severe criticism of Fallout 3 available here to link in the original piece and I regret that. It dovetails rather nicely with what I've written and it's much better executed than my piece. I strongly recommend anyone...

Outlast, Outplay, Outtrigger.

Break out the dust rags and the all-purpose Windex, we've got a new Dreamcast
game in the house! If you're a frustrated Dreamcast owner who's been looking for
a new game with plenty of mindless fraggin' good fun, be sure to take a peek at
AM2's new arcade-style run 'n gun game, Outtrigger. You'll join an international
team of counter-terrorism specialists on a mission to…well, shoot a lot of things.

First off, I feel it's important to note that Outtrigger is primarily
a multiplayer game in the same vein of many PC first-person shooters. If you're
not online, this experience will be a very short one. Still…

Outrigger drops players into a familiar world of frags, frags and more
frags. If you're familiar with Unreal Tournament
or Quake, you'll have no problem jumping right
into the action. The premise? Well, I'm sure one exists, but it never actually
came up. All you need to know is that you're a counter-terrorist and you'll
be shooting a lot of bad guys.

The single player game is basically made up of Training missions and the multiplayer
involves plenty of plain old people blastin'. Simple, straightforward, and to
the point.

There are two types of gameplay modes for each experience. If you're alone,
you'll have Arcade and Mission mode, but if you'd rather be fragging someone
else, there's the Versus and Online Network Battle. Interestingly enough, the
single player modes feel like practice for the online experience. Arcade serves
as a control tutorial that helps you get used to combat and the Mission mode
doesn't really feel like much of a mission at all.

Some of the missions include objectives like 'collect a certain amount of coins'
or 'kill a certain number of terrorists' within a specific amount of time, but
they all take place on multiplayer style maps. Others missions just have you
running around the map trying to rack up as many frags as you can - just like
the multiplayer game. There are 45 missions total, but you'll be done with them
surprisingly fast. After all, most have a time limit between 2 and 3 minutes.

At least you'll unlock new characters, weapons and arenas, so it isn't a total
waste. I wish the single player was more involving, but it is very apparent
that AM2 designed Outtrigger with a group of people in mind. The lone
gunman won't have much to do here.

Versus mode supports up to four players at a time via the split screen we've
all grown to love and/or hate. You'll run, you'll shoot, and you'll do it all
with amazing speed. Fragging friends is always fun.

The Online Network Battle runs pretty smoothly, this time supporting up to
six players. It also runs at an amazingly fast framerate with only a split second
of firing lag. The only bit of annoyance is the pause that interrupts the game
if a new player joins.

Control in a first-person shooter is traditionally unwieldy on a console,
but AM2 has managed to pull off a satisfactory scheme. For the most part, you
won't really need pinpoint accuracy to put the hurt on your opponents due to
the generous targeting assistance. Other good news comes in the form of a third-person
option. First person is fine, but sometimes the action calls for an out of body
experience.

There are also several different controller schemes for you to choose from
and on top of that, PC aficionados are able to use the Dreamcast mouse and keyboard
for even better control. You'll still encounter the limited range of "looking"
(you can't see straight up) as in the controller schemes, but I'm just glad
they offer the support.

Graphically, Outtrigger does a decent job and fits nicely into the
next generation of video gaming. Nice explosions, detailed characters and clean
arenas combine for a visual experience you'll enjoy.

One of Outtrigger's biggest shortcomings, though, is the size of the
locations where your battles take place. They're simply too small. I'm not over-exaggerating
when I say you can run around an entire map in just a few seconds. Even in a
four-player game, the majority of the maps feel way too confining. This is not
a game for claustrophobics.

Another glaring problem is the overall lack of depth. Even while playing the
multiplayer game, you never feel like there's a strategy or plan of action beyond
not getting shot. There's a lot of running and shooting and it just never ends.
This is fine for awhile, but it won't take long for you to feel like it's same
experience over and over again.

For a quick little frag fix, Outtrigger is not a bad choice. Its fast
and furious action is a nice distraction for the itchy trigger finger. But once
that itch is scratched, there's not much action left.